Police officer wins fight for his job

The morning police reform adviser Paul Herring was escorted out of College Street headquarters - December 22, 2000 - Paul Whelan and Peter Ryan were still running law enforcement in NSW.

Four Christmases, two police ministers and one commissioner later, Mr Herring has not done another day's work, but has drawn a public service salary totalling almost $200,000.

While Mr Herring has been driving a nursing home bus and volunteering for Meals on Wheels, the state's 11 police regions have been reduced to five, the officer who hired him, Christine Nixon, has become commissioner of Victoria Police, and NSW Police headquarters has moved to Parramatta.

But after more than three years and a protracted Supreme Court case, Mr Herring has won back a job in police human resources.

It is understood some financial issues are yet to be resolved, but that Mr Herring has been receiving about $61,000 a year - the adjusted rate at which he was hired in 1996 and about $30,000 less than what he was being paid upon suspension.

Mr Herring, a team leader with the Crime Management Support Unit, was suspended on the same morning the commissioner sacked two other members of the unit.

The unit's commander, British import superintendent Ken Seddon, and former ASIO officer Jim Ritchie, were dismissed after Mr Ritchie held an extraordinary press conference in which he alleged the unit was being sabotaged by senior police officers.

Mr Ritchie's outburst came two months after it was revealed Internal Affairs and the Police Integrity Commission were investigating the unit for alleged travel expense rorts.

What followed, and took more than two years to resolve, was a PIC inquiry, Operation Malta, originally set down for eight hearing days but which cost $8 million and recommended no action be taken against anyone.

Along the way, Malta embroiled Mr Ryan, his then deputies Jeff Jarratt and Ken Moroney, the then commander of Internal Affairs, Mal Brammer, and the then commander of Crime Agencies, Clive Small. Mr Moroney, who replaced Mr Ryan as commissioner, is the only one of those officers still in the NSW Police.

On the day of the unit's purge, Mr Ryan successfully sought an injunction against Mr Herring, Mr Seddon and Mr Ritchie, preventing them from speaking publicly about their removal.

Mr Herring - a NSW police officer from 1978 to 1990 - sued the commissioner in the Supreme Court, citing breaches of contract and duty of care.

Another gag order was imposed as part of a Supreme Court mediation process finalised on March 10 with the agreement that Mr Herring return to work.

That means Mr Herring, 54, cannot comment on what led to the three-year, three-month, state of limbo he and his wife Jackie have endured.

"We're happy that it's all over and we can get on with our lives and I can get back to doing something constructive that makes a difference to policing.